Creeping closer to Philadelphia….

Middletown was founded in 1755 along the left bank of the Susquehanna River and was incorporated as a borough in 1828 after a sudden boom in development and population occurred as a result of the construction of the Union Canal, connecting Lancaster to Middletown. Earlier in 1824 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania‘s legislature authorized and funded the canal construction as part of the broad sweeping commercial initiative called the Main Line of Public Works; a forward looking project designing to connect Philadelphia to Pittsburgh by canals and river navigations which projects would continue to allow Philadelphia to challenge New York City (and its Erie Canal) for emerging mid-western markets beyond the Allegheny Mountains. Middletown was selected as the western terminus of the Union Canal, and it was named from its location halfway^[5] between Lancaster and Carlisle, where an ascent exists to a low pass allowing easier (wagon era) travel^[6] among the barrier mountains of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians giving access into north-central Maryland and the valley of the Potomac River.^[a] It is the oldest incorporated community in Dauphin County and is located within a rich agricultural area forming the western edge of Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

And for the boss’s latest interest in what’s ahead for America….

Middletown is located 3 miles (5 km) north of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. The Unit #2 reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, causing then-Governor Richard “Dick” Thornburgh to order the evacuation of pregnant women and pre-school children from the area. Within days, 140,000 people had left the area.^[8][9] President Jimmy Carter visited Middletown’s Community Building to calm the nerves of anxious residents.

And warming the cockles of this writer’s heart:

Because the town is old, diverse historic architectural styles abound. Middletown has everything from log houses (some whose construction is obscured by modern siding) to Victorian mansions, and beyond. The Simon Cameron House and Bank, B’nai Jacob Synagogue, St. Peter’s Kierch, Charles and Joseph Raymond Houses, Henry Smith Farm, and Swatara Ferry House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[10]

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Pennsylvania, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

President Trump in Virginia….

I mean, with the governor there counting the votes, you’d think it would be a write off.

Apparently not. Virginia might well be in play.

Hmm. Well, what the news on Newport News. Let’s see:

During the 17th century, shortly after founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, English settlers explored and began settling the areas adjacent to Hampton Roads. In 1610, Sir Thomas Gates “took possession” of a nearby Native American village, which became known as Kecoughtan. At that time, settlers began clearing land along the James River (the navigable part of which was called Hampton Roads) for plantations, including the present area of Newport News.

In 1619, the area of Newport News was included in one of four huge corporations of the Virginia Company of London. It became known as Elizabeth Cittie and extended west all the way to Skiffe’s Creek (currently the border between Newport News and James City County). Elizabeth Cittie included all of present-day South Hampton Roads.^[12]

By 1634, the English colony of Virginia consisted of a population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. It was divided into eight shires of Virginia, which were renamed as counties shortly thereafter. The area of Newport News became part of Warwick River Shire, which became Warwick County in 1637. By 1810, the county seat was at Denbigh. For a short time in the mid-19th century, the county seat was moved to Newport News.^[13]

Shires, huh. I’ve been in Virginia many a time and have yet to see a Hobbit there.

Newport News was a rural area of plantations and a small fishing village until after the American Civil War. Construction of the railroad and establishment of the great shipyard brought thousands of workers and associated development. It was one of only a few cities in Virginia to be newly established without earlier incorporation as a town. (Virginia has had an independent city political subdivision since 1871.) …

The area that formed the present-day southern end of Newport News had long been established as an unincorporated town. During Reconstruction, the period after the American Civil War, the new City of Newport News was essentially founded by California merchant Collis P. Huntington. Huntington, one of the Big Four associated with the Central Pacific Railroad, in California, formed the western part of the country’s First Transcontinental Railroad. He was recruited by former Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham to become a major investor and guiding light for a southern railroad. He helped complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to the Ohio River in 1873.^[15]

Huntington knew the railroad could transport coal eastbound from West Virginia’s untapped natural resources. His agents began acquiring land in Warwick County in 1865. In the 1880s, he oversaw extension of the C&O’s new Peninsula Subdivision, which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond southeast down the peninsula through Williamsburg to Newport News, where the company developed coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads.^[16]

His next project was to develop Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which became the world’s largest shipyard. Opened as Chesapeake Dry Dock & Construction Company, the shipbuilding was intended to build boats to transition goods from the rails to the seas. With president Theodore Roosevelt‘s declaration to create a Great White Fleet, the company entered the warship business by building seven of the first sixteen warships.

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Virginia, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

Sorry for the delay. I have gig this week playing with an eight week old basset puppy.

Okay, Jacksonville. From Wiki:

Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida, and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020.^[8] It is the seat of Duval County,^[9] with which the city government consolidated in 1968. Consolidation gave Jacksonville its great size and placed most of its metropolitan population within the city limits. As of 2019, Jacksonville’s population was estimated to be 911,507, making it the 12th most populous city in the U.S., the most populous city in the Southeast, and the most populous city in the South outside of the state of Texas.^[10] The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,523,615 and is the fourth largest metropolitan area in Florida.^[11]

Great. So, what happened BEFORE Duval County moved the city limits to match the county line?

The area of the modern city of Jacksonville has been inhabited for thousands of years. On Black Hammock Island in the national Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, a University of North Florida team discovered some of the oldest remnants of pottery in the United States, dating to 2500 BC.^[21]

In the 16th century, the beginning of the historical era, the region was inhabited by the Mocama, a coastal subgroup of the Timucua people. At the time of contact with Europeans, all Mocama villages in present-day Jacksonville were part of the powerful chiefdom known as the Saturiwa, centered around the mouth of the St. Johns River.^[22] One early French map shows a village called Ossachite at the site of what is now downtown Jacksonville; this may be the earliest recorded name for that area.^[23]

In 1562, French Huguenot explorer Jean Ribault charted the St. Johns River, calling it the River of May because that was the month of his discovery. Ribault erected a stone column at his landing site near the river’s mouth, claiming the newly discovered land for France.^[24] In 1564, René Goulaine de Laudonnière established the first European settlement on the St. Johns River, Fort Caroline, near the main village of the Saturiwa.

Philip II of Spain ordered Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to protect the interests of Spain by attacking the French at Fort Caroline. On September 20, 1565, a Spanish force from the nearby Spanish settlement of St. Augustine attacked Fort Caroline, and killed nearly all the French soldiers defending it.^[25] The Spanish renamed the fort as San Mateo and, following the expulsion of the French, St. Augustine became the most important European settlement in Florida. The location of Fort Caroline is subject to debate, but a reconstruction of the fort was established in 1964 along the St. Johns River.^[26]Northeast Florida showing Cow Ford (center) from Bernard Romans‘ 1776 map of Florida

Spain ceded Florida to the British in 1763 after its victory against the French in the Seven Years’ War (known as the French and Indian War on the North American front). The British soon constructed the King’s Road connecting St. Augustine to Georgia. The road crossed the St. Johns River at a narrow point, which the Seminole called Wacca Pilatka and the British called the Cow Ford; these names reflected the use of the ford for moving cattle across the river there.^[27][28][29]

The British introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, indigo and fruits as commodity crops, in addition to exporting lumber. These crops were labor-intensive and the British imported more enslaved Africans to work the plantations that were developed. The planters in northeastern Florida began to prosper economically.^[30]

After being defeated in the American Revolutionary War, Britain returned control of this territory to Spain in 1783. The settlement at the Cow Ford continued to grow.

So, how did the territory end up being American? Spain handed it to us a few decades later. Colonies can be expensive you know.

After Spain ceded the Florida Territory to the United States in 1821, American settlers on the north side of the Cow Ford decided to plan a town, laying out the streets and plats. They named the town Jacksonville, after celebrated war hero and first Territorial Governor (later U.S. President) Andrew Jackson. Led by Isaiah D. Hart, residents wrote a charter for a town government, which was approved by the Florida Legislative Council on February 9, 1832.

During the American Civil War, Jacksonville was a key supply point for hogs and cattle being shipped from Florida to feed the Confederate forces. The city was blockaded by Union forces, who gained control of nearby Fort Clinch. Though no battles were fought in Jacksonville proper, the city changed hands several times between Union and Confederate forces. In the Skirmish of the Brick Church in 1862, Confederates won their first victory in the state.^[31] However, Union forces captured a Confederate position at the Battle of St. Johns Bluff, and occupied Jacksonville in 1862. Slaves escaped to freedom in Union lines. In February 1864 Union forces left Jacksonville and confronted a Confederate Army at the Battle of Olustee, going down to defeat.

Union forces retreated to Jacksonville and held the city for the remainder of the war. In March 1864 a Confederate cavalry confronted a Union expedition in the Battle of Cedar Creek. Warfare and the long occupation left the city disrupted after the war.^[32]

During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, Jacksonville and nearby St. Augustine became popular winter resorts for the rich and famous. Visitors arrived by steamboat and later by railroad. President Grover Cleveland attended the Sub-Tropical Exposition in the city on February 22, 1888, during his trip to Florida.^[33] This highlighted the visibility of the state as a worthy place for tourism. The city’s tourism, however, was dealt major blows in the late 19th century by yellow fever outbreaks. Extending the Florida East Coast Railway further south drew visitors to other areas. From 1893 to 1938, Jacksonville was the site of the Florida Old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Home; it operated a nearby cemetery.^[34]

Okay, enough of that. On to the rally, uh peaceful protest.

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Florida, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

Let’s see…Moon Township outside of Pittsburgh. Steel, coal and all that jazz.

The initial settlement of Moon Township was a direct result of the westward expansion of English settlers and traders who arrived in the Ohio Valley in the early to mid-18th century. During the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War), the Iroquois, who controlled the land for hunting grounds through right of conquest, ceded large parcels of southwestern Pennsylvania lands through treaty or abandonment to settlers. In some cases, the land was already occupied by squatters who were to be forced off the land.

In the face of this turmoil, Native American settlements of the south bank of the Ohio River typically relocated to more populous areas of the north bank in the current locales of Sewickley and Ambridge….

As the 18th century drew to a close, abandoned lands were taken up by new settlers who were drawn to the region by the fertility of the soil. This round of pioneers were, by and large, wealthier than their predecessors and had the means to develop the broken and hilly areas into plots suitable for farming.

Moon Township was created in 1788 as one of the original townships of the newly created Allegheny County.^[4] In 1789 by an act of the legislature a portion of Washington County south of the Ohio River was transferred to Allegheny County.^[5] The transferred area became part of Moon Township.^[6]

At this time Moon Township occupied an enormous tract of land – possibly 145 square miles (380 km²). Some reports and, more often, legends of the time indicate that it would take one man on horseback two days to travel between the boundaries of the township. The sheer difficulty of settlers performing their civic duties (e.g., reporting to assigned polling places or attending jury trials) made it necessary for local governing authorities to parcel out the land into smaller municipalities. So, in 1790, the current Fayette Township was portioned off from Moon Township, to be followed by Findlay and Crescent townships, respectively.

In 1800 when Beaver County was created from Allegheny and Washington Counties that portion of Beaver County south of the Ohio River that it received from Allegheny County was in Moon Township. Upon the creation of Beaver County that portion of Moon Township that Allegheny County lost to Beaver County was divided into two new townships: First Moon and Second Moon Townships, Beaver County.^[7]

In 1943, the federal government designed and built a housing plan known as Mooncrest for defense workers. Mooncrest residents produced armor plates, munitions and ships at the nearby Dravo Corp. during World War II.

More at wiki.

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Pennsylvania, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

Looks like this one is west of the mistake on the lake also known as Cleveland.

Wiki is not much help today:

A post office called Swanton has been in operation since 1827.^[6] The village takes its name from nearby Swan Creek.^[7]

In the heyday of steam power, Swanton was home to the A. D. Baker Company, a manufacturer of steam powered traction engines and road contractors’ equipment. It was at the Baker Company that an improved valve gear for steam engines was developed. A Baker employee named Gifford is credited with the initial idea, which was subsequently developed into the Baker valve gear and patented in 1903. Baker valve ear was eventually manufactured by The Pilliod Company, another Swanton business. Baker valve gear from Pilliod saw widespread use on U.S. steam locomotives for railroads in the first half of the 20th century.

On February 15, 1992, Air Transport International Flight 805 crashed in Swanton, killing all four people on board.^[8]

On June 6, 2019, a vehicle left parked on the tracks next to the Main Street railroad crossing resulted in a derailment that knocked out power to the town and much of the surrounding area, and hampered traffic on one of the main rail lines linking the Midwest to the East Coast.^[9]

And, as of this evening, the keepers of the wiki page can make another entry:

On Monday, September 21, 2020, President Donald J. Trump held a Make America Great Again protest against stupidity at the airport.

Swanton does, though, have a unique claim to fame.

Swanton Memorial Park is home to one of E. M. Viquesney‘s “Spirit of the American Doughboy” statues. The sculpture was one of several donated as a gift by France to U.S. cities that had lost many soldiers during World War I. It is described as a “Figure of a World War I infantryman advancing through the stumps and barbed wire of No Man’s Land. He holds a grenade in his raised proper right hand and a rifle in his proper left hand.”^[13] The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System lists the statue as being installed in 1926, “administered by City of Swanton, Parks Division, Swanton, Ohio.”^[14] Also according to the Smithsonian, the inscription on the statue reads as follows: “Spirit of the/American Doughboy”/copyrighted by E. M. Viquesney/Georgia (On stone base:) SWANTON REMEMBERS/TO THE MEMORY/OF THE/VALIANT SONS OF/SWANTON & COMMUNITY/WORLD WAR/1917-1918/THIS MEMORIAL IS/LOVINGLY DEDICATED/WE HOLD THEM IN OUR/GRATEFUL HEARTS WITH/REVERENCE AND HONOR/FOREVER/ERECTED 1926 unsigned.^[13]

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Ohio, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

Think these ladies will be at the rally, uh, peaceful protest?

After all, they are from Fayetteville.

The area of present-day Fayetteville was historically inhabited by various Siouan Native American peoples, such as the Eno, Shakori, Waccamaw, Keyauwee, and Cape Fear people. They followed successive cultures of other indigenous peoples in the area for more than 12,000 years.

After the violent upheavals of the Yamasee War and Tuscarora Wars during the second decade of the 18th century, the North Carolina colony encouraged English settlement along the upper Cape Fear River, the only navigable waterway entirely within the colony. Two inland settlements, Cross Creek and Campbellton, were established by Scots from Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

Merchants in Wilmington wanted a town on the Cape Fear River to secure trade with the frontier country. They were afraid people would use the Pee Dee River and transport their goods to Charleston, South Carolina. The merchants bought land from Newberry in Cross Creek. Campbellton became a place where poor whites and free blacks lived, and gained a reputation for lawlessness.^{[citation needed]}

In 1783, Cross Creek and Campbellton united, and the new town was incorporated as Fayetteville in honor of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who significantly aided the American forces during the war.^[8] Fayetteville was the first city to be named in his honor in the United States.

There’s more history at wiki that’s interesting, but this is the part…well….

In March 1865, Gen. William T. Sherman and his 60,000-man army attacked Fayetteville and destroyed the Confederate arsenal (designed by the Scottish architect William Bell^[10]). Sherman’s troops also destroyed foundries and cotton factories, and the offices of The Fayetteville Observer. Not far from Fayetteville, Confederate and Union troops engaged in the last cavalry battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads.

Downtown Fayetteville was the site of a skirmish, as Confederate Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton and his men surprised a cavalry patrol, killing 11 Union soldiers and capturing a dozen on March 11, 1865.

Segregation, of course, was part of life there, and it is adjacent to Fort Bragg.

Given the news of the day yesterday, this one should be interesting.

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in North Carolina, and any travel stories you may have of the place.

First question…how does one pronounce “Bemidji”?

Wiki says: Bemidji (/bəˈmɪdʒiː/ bə-MIJ-ee)

Works for me.

Okay, here we go:

As a central city for three Indian reservations, Bemidji is the site of many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service. Near Bemidji are the Red Lake Indian Reservation, White Earth Indian Reservation, and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River; it is nicknamed “The First City on the Mississippi”. Bemidji is also the self-proclaimed “curling capital” of the U.S. and the alleged birthplace of legendary Paul Bunyan….

Its name derives from the OjibweBuh-mid-ji-ga-maug (Double-Vowel orthography: bemijigamaag),^[6] meaning “a lake with crossing waters”. On occasion, in Ojibwe, Bemidji is called Wabigamaang (“at the lake channel/narrows”), because part of the city is situated on the Lakes Bemidji/Irving narrows, on the south end of Lake Bemidji, and extends to the eastern shore of Lake Irving. Some sources say that Chief Bemidji, an Ojibwe leader, is the namesake.^[7]

Bemidji Township was surveyed by European Americans in 1874. It was organized in 1896, 24 days after the village of Bemidji was chartered, and is the oldest township in the county. In 1897, the county attorney declared the original Bemidji township organization illegal (no reason given) and the township reorganized on June 26, 1897.^[8]

About 50 Leech Lake Indians lived along the south shore of the lake prior to the 1880s. They called the lake Bemidjigumaug, meaning “river or route flowing crosswise”. Freeman and Besty Doud claimed 160 acres west of and including present-day Diamond Point; they were Bemidji’s first homesteaders. 

Art Lee created the story that the folkloric figure Paul Bunyan came from the Northwoods. Tales about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox led to public sculptures of them in the 1930s.^{[citation needed]} According to Discover America, the Paul and Babe statues are “the second most photographed statues in America,” surpassed only by Mount Rushmore.^[9] The Rotarians of Bemidji commissioned the statue of Paul Bunyan during the Great Depression as a tourist attraction. It was unveiled on January 15, 1937, to kick off a Winter Carnival that drew more than 10,000 visitors.

Hey, every place has to have a claim to fame, right?

Today Bemidji is an important educational, governmental, trade and medical center for north central Minnesota. The wood industry is still a significant part of the local economy, with Georgia-Pacific, Potlatch, and Northwood Panelboard all having waferboard plants in the local area. They use wood species that were once classified as waste trees.^[10]

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Minnesota, and any travel stories you may have of the place.